During a Rose Garden ceremony today President Trump resoundingly disputed the claims of fired FBI Director James Comey with a definitive affirmation of his position. There is no ambiguity:

.

Interestingly everyone has previously presented the possibility of “tapes” around a proposition that President Trump would be the recorder, in his private dining room, of such a conversation. Almost no-one has considered the possibility that President Trump would be the subject of any recording, and might just later discover the activity. ‘Secret Service recording’?…

Again, timelines and backdrop are important.

When President Trump originally tweeted his concerns about being monitored, recorded, surveilled or wire-tapped,it was March 4th.

♦ The private Green Room dinner that FBI Director James Comey attended with President Trump was January 27th, just about a week after the inauguration. This is the meeting where, according to Comey, President Trump asked for “loyalty”.

♦ The next time President Trump and James Comey were alone was in the Oval Office on February 14th.

♦ Coincidentally(?) February 14th was the exact same day when the head of the Secret Service, Joseph Clancy, announced his resignation. Clancy’s resignation was effective MARCH 4th.

FEBRUARY 14th – The director of the Secret Service is stepping down. Joseph Clancy informed his colleagues of his decision to retire, effective March 4, saying that “for personal reasons, it is time.” Clancy, 61, says he wants to spend more time with his family.

Clancy was brought back to the Secret Service as director by former President Obama in 2014 (link)

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

Shortly thereafter President Trump remodeled the “Green Room” (presidential dining room) adding a flat screen TV and a chandelier he paid for personally. During the remodel the dining room was “taken down to the studs”, and according to a quote later delivered by Time Magazine:

TIME – […] But few rooms have changed so much so fast as his dining room, where he often eats his lunch amid stacks of newspapers and briefing sheets. A few weeks back, the President ordered a gutting of the room. “We found gold behind the walls, which I always knew. Renovations are grand,” he says, boasting that contractors from the General Services Administration resurfaced the walls and redid the moldings in two days. “Remember how hard they worked? They wanted to make me happy.”

Trump says he used his own money to pay for the enormous crystal chandelier that now hangs from the ceiling. “I made a contribution to the White House,” he jokes. But the thing he wants to show is on the opposite wall, above the fireplace, a new 60-plus-inch flat-screen television that he has cued up with clips from the day’s Senate hearing on Russia. Since at least as far back as Richard Nixon, Presidents have kept televisions in this room, usually small ones, no larger than a bread box, tucked away on a sideboard shelf. That’s not the Trump way. (link)

Again, notice in the tweet President Trump is NOT saying he recorded the conversation(s), only that “”tapes” of the conversations” might exist. Presumably the conversations on January 6th (Trump Tower), January 27th (Green Room), and February 14th (Oval Office). [Secret Service Recordings?]

♦We also know from Sally Yates testimony (May 8th), where she outlined the notification of White House Counsel Don McGahn of the issues the DOJ had with Michael Flynn, that Yates took Bill Priestap with her to the WH meeting on January 26th.

So let’s add President Trump’s meeting with FBI Director James Comey into the timeline of Sally Yates, and add her version of what McGahn’s concerns were about the content of the afternoon meeting:

•Friday January 20th – Inauguration

•TuesdayJanuary 24th – Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn was interviewed at the White House by the FBI.

•WednesdayJanuary 25th – The Department of Justice received a detailed readout from the FBI agents who had interviewed Flynn. Yates said she felt “it was important to get this information to the White House as quickly as possible.”

•ThursdayJanuary 26th – (morning) Yates called McGahn first thing that morning to tell him she had “a very sensitive matter” that had to be discussed face to face. McGahn agreed to meet with Yates later that afternoon.

•Thursday January 26th – (afternoon) Sally Yates traveled to the White House along with a senior member of the DOJ’s National Security Division, Bill Priestap, who was overseeing the matter. This was Yates’ first meeting with McGahn in his office, which also acts as a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF).

Yates said she began their meeting by laying out the media accounts and media statements made by Vice President Mike Pence and other high-ranking White House officials about General Flynn’s activity “that we knew not to be the truth.”

According to Sally Yates testimony, she and Bill Priestap reportedly presented all the information to McGahn so the White House could take action that they deemed appropriate. When asked by McGahn if Flynn should be fired, Yates answered, “that really wasn’t our call.”

Yates also said her decision to notify the White House counsel had been discussed “at great length.” According to her testimony: “Certainly leading up to our notification on the 26th, it was a topic of a whole lot of discussion in DOJ and with other members of the intel community.”

•Friday January 27th – (morning) White House Counsel Don McGahn called Yates in the morning and asked if she could come back to his office.

•Friday January 27th – (late afternoon) According to her testimony, Sally Yates returned to the White House late that afternoon. One of McGahn’s topics discussed was whether Flynn could be prosecuted for his conduct.

Specifically, according to Yates, one of the questions McGahn asked Yates was, “Why does it matter to DOJ if one White House official lies to another?” She explained that it “was a whole lot more than that,” and reviewed the same issues outlined the prior day.

McGahn expressed his concern that taking action might interfere with the FBI investigation of Flynn, and Yates said it wouldn’t. “It wouldn’t really be fair of us to tell you this and then expect you to sit on your hands,” Yates had told McGahn.

McGahn asked if he could look at the underlying evidence of Flynn’s conduct, and she said they would work with the FBI over the weekend and “get back with him on Monday morning.”

•Friday January 27th – (evening) In what appears to be only a few hours later, President Trump is having dinner with FBI Director James Comey, in the Green Room, where President Trump asked if he was under investigation.

Now, accepting the politicization of the entire Russian Conspiracy Narrative that was leading the headlines for the two months prior to this dinner; and knowing moments earlier your Chief White House counsel informs you that two political operatives (Yates and Priestap) within the DOJ were providing classified intelligence reports about General Flynn; and knowing the prior months (Nov/Dec/Jan) were fraught with leaks from intelligence reports identical to those discussed; wouldn’t you perhaps think that any action you take could be utilized to add fuel to this Russian narrative? And/Or be used by these same leak facilitators to make something seem like something it is not?

Think about it.

If you were President under those circumstances, wouldn’t you ask FBI Director James Comey what the deal was with these investigations, and whether or not you were under investigation BEFORE you took action to retain or fire Mike Flynn?

Given the circumstances it could appear, and most definitely should be considered, that the President was being ‘set-up’ to impede an FBI investigation by taking action against Flynn.

For several months the media were steadfast in their efforts to turn this into Watergate 2.0. To achieve that objective the political angle-players and media need only to paint Trump into a corner with a credible accusation of the president interfering with an FBI investigation (Flynn).

If Trump took action – What mechanism was in place for the President to protect himself from accusations of impropriety and impeding an investigation?

Who is to say Yates and Priestap would stand behind the White House and support action taken by the President?

What confidence would President Trump have that Yates/Priestap would speak publicly about their advice?

What would FBI Director James Comey and Asst. FBI Director McCabe do with a President Trump conversation about Mike Flynn who was “under investigation”?

Remember, for reference: On February 15th, while discussing another issue, FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe asked Chief of Staff Reince Priebus for 5 minutes alone after the meeting. At the one-on-one McCabe told Priebus the New York Times Russia and Trump campaign story was a “bunch of BS”.

Priebus asked McCabe if McCabe would be able to say that publicly. McCabe said he would check with James Comey. Later, McCabe called back and said he couldn’t issue a statement about it. SEE SCREENGRAB:

And now it is discovered, and admitted, that FBI Director James Comey was leaking information to the media for many of the stories.

James Comey testified yesterday that he delivered his memos to his friend at Columbia University, Professor Daniel Richman, on/after May 15th. He said the intent was to initiate a “special prosecutor”:

“I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, ‘cause it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation; there might be a tape.” [Referring to Monday May 15] “And my judgment was I needed to get that out in the public square so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. So I asked a close friend of mine to do it.”

[…] By Mr. Comey’s account, his answer to Mr. Trump’s initial question apparently did not satisfy the president, the associates said. Later in the dinner, Mr. Trump again said to Mr. Comey that he needed his loyalty.

Mr. Comey again replied that he would give him “honesty” and did not pledge his loyalty, according to the account of the conversation.

But Mr. Trump pressed him on whether it would be “honest loyalty.”

“You will have that,” Mr. Comey told his associates he responded. (link)

The President Trump Tweet James Comey claimed yesterday he was responding to, was transmitted by the President on Friday May 12th (the day after the NYT article):

So the “leak” to the New York Times, to write the Thursday May 11th story about the dinner in question (there were only two participants: Trump and Comey) happened at least four days prior to James Comey stating he intentionally gave memos to his friend Daniel Richman after waking up on Monday night May 15th.

Here’s the statement today from President Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz which is directly calling out the reality behind the timeline:

IMO – President Trump’s tweet was in response to the NYT article. Now Comey is trying to use that tweeted response from our President as his coming-out party of “Hey looky looky.. I am the leaker and I did it because I am so righteous”. The congress is guilty of criminal waste of time, money and resources in chasing the non-existent make-believe crime. Someone needs to put a stop to all this and get the congress working on agenda that our President promised he wants to work on (wall, tax reform, Obamacare, etc.) to MAGA.

If there is one other person who is just as crooked a liar and as evil as Comey and who also deserves to be behind bars, it is the excreable John Brennan. This is the man who single-handedly and with astonishing brazenness and perverse politicization of the CIA, conjured up the absolutely nonsensical narrative of Russia “interfering in the election with the purpose of helping Trump and hurting Clinton”. The evidence – so called “trolls”, “bots” and email “hacking”. Clapper is a fool and an idiot to boot but Brennan is dangerous. I still remember that beyotch Megyn Kelly smugly state that if the CIA arrived at that conclusion, then it has to be true, no questions asked. Such utter bs.

Sometimes its hard to believe that things have come to such a pass with this kind of delusion and hysteria even when the lie is so obvious. But yet, here we are. A lesser man would have wilted but God Bless President Trump as he shrugs off this crap with that ever enduring smile..

He was Muslim all along. Tbat’s a National Security nigjtmare right there. You know jihadis walked under him, and what he has done? Sedition, yes, treason, likely, act of war against dar al harb? I wouldn’t bet against that.

Hello everybody.Speak here for the first time.I am a fan of POTUS.I am from China.In fact there are many POTUS fans in my country as we appreciate his ability,talent,courage and his
love for his country and people.
As I am not a native speaker so there will be lots of grammatical errors in my sentences,please forgive me.
I want to make some suggestions to him but have no effective access to pass them to him.The ‘contact’ chanel in the WH website may be controlled by some staff who are not loyal
to POTUS,and if I post them on twitter it is impossible to be seen by him or his team as there
are too many tweets @them.
If someone has effective access to communicate with his team,could you pass my suggestions?

===========================================

Some Advice to the POTUS

Never testify under oath in the congress.Enimies will use various tricks to set up you,expect you fall into their traps.Once you say something inaccurate carelessly,or something inappropriate in the condition they deliberately provoke you,you will commit perjury.
Even you are really sure you did not say’I hope you let him go’,or’I expect loyalty’,you should never go to the hill to testify.Many otherquestions will be asked.The trend of the hearing can not be predicted and probably be disastrous.A hearing will harm the authority of you and create a bad impression that you are a suspect.
Even you really said’I hope you let him go’,or’I expect loyalty’,it is not a big problem.Asking FBI drop the Flynn investigation is a legitimate exercise of power,as FBI is subordinate to the POTUS.’Loyalty’ can be read as loyalty to the country,not to the POTUS himself.All these words can not constitute ‘obstruction of justice’.Media may attack these words but they conld not have a material effect.No need to worry.
It is possible that Comey put micro recording device in his suit/shoes/watch when he dinned with you,or some staff who are rats of Obama taped the conversations between you two.If you really said ‘I hope you let him go’,or’I expect loyalty’and denied these words under oath,they will produce the recording and destroy you.
So if the congress subpoena you to testify,please exercise executive privilege and refuse to go.One is bound to have a slip of the tongue if he talks too much.

=============================================

As I mentioned the possibility that POTUS really said’I hope you let him go’,or’I expect loyalty’,I do not mean I do not trust POTUS.Everyone may have memory errors,or refuse to admit the fact he said something for reasons of pride,even these words are nothing wrong.

You wrote that you are “from” China, does that mean you have come to America, or are you still in China?

In any case, welcome, and don’t be shy, your concerns and thoughts are welcome here. Soon you will feel as if you have a new family.

One request, please break up your messages into paragraphs. It’s a rule here, and it does make it much easier to follow and understand you. Many people actually skip over long unbroken blocks of text without reading them at all.

Your English is not as bad as you think. Stay with us, and keep writing, you will get stronger, and more confident. Treepers are good patient people that will take pleasure in helping you when you need it.

My expression was not accurate enough.I am still in China and have a plan to make a trip to America in the next few years.

I found this website(abbreviated to CTH,right?) through twitter.I sign up for twitter last month because the president use it.:)I love the good atmosphere and excellent points here,and am really moved by Treepers’ support and love for PDJT.

Thank you for your advice and I will break up messages into paragraphs.Hope my English will be better days ahead.In fact I have to look up words in my dictionary when writing something in English.

I chosen Venessa as my English name several years ago and found that it is the same name of the daughter-in-law of PDJT just a few months ago.A funny coincidence.

As far as I know, most Chinese people are not very concerned about Justin Trudeau,neither like him nor dislike him.Some women like him because they think he is handsome.A significant number of Chinese PDJT fans do not like Trudeau,because they think Trudeau’s policy position is similar to Marcron,and essentially different from PDJT.

Venessa – welcome to the Treehouse! It’s so gratifying to hear that our POTUS has fans among China’s citizens. Thank you for your thoughts. And by the way, you did a fine job of expressing them in English.

Thank you for your encouragement which lent me more confidence to express my thoughts in English.

I began to pay attention to PDJT from 2016 Election.In a large chinese web forum which I often visit,his fans industriously translated his speechs and news,explained his ideology and policy,clarified the rumours about him.Some of these fans are Chinese Americans who voted for him,and some are chinese citizens.As gradually learned more about him,I became a fan too.

I give up. What do I have to do to stop that Arby’s ad? I haven’t been able to read this since it was posted. I can barely get this typed without being jerked back to the top of the article and the ad. I even tried to click on the ad but that’s all there is, just that small ad on the side of the page.
Any suggestions? I admit to being a compu-idiot but this is really aggravating.and I still haven’t been able to read the timeline.

I was having this exact same problem and the CTH crew suggested I download adblockplus.org on to my laptop. It solved all my problems! It took about two seconds to download and I am now ad free…..my computer runs like lightening now as well because it isn’t spending all that time trying to download the ads.

Mine does the same thing, if you click the ad (as much as you don’t want to!) it will stop it from doing that… if that doesn’t work, try to click the little arrow at the top right of the ad, it’ll pop up a window and you can opt out of that particular ad… other ads probably won’t make the same thing happen.

two things you can do. If you love CTH do this. 1. if you use an ad blocker, be sure to donate to CTH. You are cheating him out of revenue. 2. Continue as you are knowing you are paying Sundance something.

Well, the dishonest media have been given their talking points. The word being used to describe Trump’s push back on Comey’s testimony is “cherry picking”, as though there is something totally arbitrary about stating the truth. The suggestion was that Trump acknowledged that some of what Comey said was true and then arbitrarily selected the things he disagreed with. Trump was one of the TWO people involved, so what he puts forward is hardly “cherry picking “. It is his perception of the events. I suppose it would have been too much for the reporters to acknowledge the possibility that Trump’s version might be accurate. The phrase cherry picking was totally misleading in this context. If someone is lying about you, and you call them on it, it is NOT “cherry picking”.

The media accepts everything Comey says as absolute truth. They don’t even want to consider it may not be true. Comey could have lied about what Trump said. If there are recordings then it can be proved. If not, it’s just one man’s word against another.

Comey made the same point during his testimony, the media is just parroting him like he’s some sort of oracle.

He said something to the effect of that when he used to try cases, he would tell the jury that you can’t cherry pick whether or not you like one thing someone says but don’t believe another, you have to take it or leave the entire testimony…

Which is complete BULLSHIT because Liars don’t lie about everything they say, you can find plenty of things a Con Man says to be true… Comey lied several times, but the media could point to certain things he said that I’m sure were truthful.

I believe that Comey had on his person, in his watch, etc. a recording device when he met one-on-one with president Trump. He was attempting to entrap Trump into saying something inappropriate or what would constitute a crime. When Comey was fired, DOJ agents confiscated all items from his office — his computer, files, everything. These items were seized legally as they are the property of the DOJ. In these items they found the secret recordings from the meetings. Trump knows of the recordings and listen to what was on them. My guess is Comey has lied about what Trump said during these meetings making false claims. The recordings would (1) reveal Comey has lied under oath about what Trump said — meaning Comey committed perjury. (2) Taping the president without permission is also a crime. I think Trump has Comey by the balls and will drop the hammer at an appropriate time.

Comey already implicated himself by saying that he didn’t follow protocol to notify DOJ because he thought Sessions was going to recuse himself. Then he said he didn’t follow protocol to notify DOJ because the Assistant Attorney General was just a temporary one. That it itself is damning. He felt he was above the law and took matters into his own hands and also implicated other senior members who agreed with him. They need to be fired as well!

I think there is no tape. Trump offering to testify can be good or bad. If he tells his story, thats good. however trump is not polotically correct by nature and can make mistake. then special counsel may pick on it.

Marinate in this. Almost everyone in Washington knew that PDJT was not being investigated. Every single person who did not speak out in favor of Trump lied by omission to the American people. They have put not only PDJT but all of those who want to see America first through hell over the last six months KNOWING Trump was not only innocent, but wasn’t even investigated. If that doesn’t chap your hide nothing will.

Kelly, you are so right on this!!! That’s what pisses me off most! And the GOP members who didn’t even have the balls to support the duly elected President of their party are damned the worst! As much as I despise the Democrats, they stand together as a party. I understand the uniparty and this just shows how there are NO GOP members who are not uniparty! McCain is senile and should be recalled or impeached or whatever can be done. He is worthless along with a few other members who are not as vocal but who were installed as placeholders. I am so done with the GOP. My pitchfork is ready!

Exactly! What about the sanctioning of investigations? the wasting of taxpayers money, resources, and time, KNOWINGLY to pursue the nothingburger? Lou Dobbs said the only crimes committed are by Congress and the investigators and I agree!! This all buys time for the RINOs to continue to do nothing just like the Dems! They were elected to “work for the American people”. What have they accomplished? With only 40+ days left to work this year?? PDJT has accomplished more good for the American people in 4 short months than Congress has in the past 8 years!! THIS IS SOOOO WRONG!!! I pray President Trump can overhaul and remove this corruption ASAP! You betcha, I’m angry!! 😡

Thank God for Sundance. This truly is the “Last Refuge.” This really is my “come-to” site for the critical analysis not to be found anywhere else. Talk about being hoisted on their own petard! I’m still not sure who did the recording but it doesn’t really matter. Trump’s tweet warning Comey about his leaks to the media are priceless. There is no question in my mind that it didn’t play a significant influence in Comey’s testimony. I don’t think his weakness in emotional strength displayed in this hearing even begins to describe what he must actually be going through. I’m sure he must be waking up many times during the night reflecting on what is going to come.

There is much discussion regarding whether any tapes of the conversation exist or not. But I have a hard time thinking that Trump would disavow either of Comey’s claims of the loyalty request or of asking for dismissal of the Flynn investigation if he didn’t have a very concrete basis to do so. This is going to be fun to watch how it plays out. Now that Comey, by his own testimony, had made himself a key player in these proceedings, it should be imperative that Mueller, a long-time friend of Comey, needs to recuse himself.

Fired FBI Director James Comey reportedly referenced an undisclosed meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the closed-door session on Thursday with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yet a source familiar with the matter said no such meeting ever happened.

If true, perhaps Comey was going by Sessions’ calendar, which Comey may have got a gander at thru NSA surveillance.

Knowing Sessions’ calendar plans yet not having first-hand knowledge of the meeting itself could result in that disparity.

If so, another trip-up by Comey. He’s already lost the plot on the May 11 / May 12 timeline issue about his leak following Trump’s tweet when the info had already been printed by NYT a day ahead of Trump’s tweet.

Here’s all Trump needs to do about the tapes. Hire a private cyber security firm who is loyal to Trump to come over and announce that they have reviewed the tapes and Trump is telling the truth bigly and everything Comey said about loyalty pledge and Flynn is a lie. Trump should then announce that he refuses to allow the FBI access to examine the tapes for forensics evaluation but expects FBI to accept his cyber security report as FBI forensics evidence. Then he should say he wiped the tapes clean…you know, with a cloth or something. And, what difference at this point does it matter?

President Trump give them the biggest shock-and-awe experience they’ve ever had. Hope the Swamp gets hit so hard, so fast and from so many different directions that the pressitutes have panic attacks live on every channel. Gasping for air with the shakes, soiled britches, eyes rolled back in their heads.

As some of them pass out on live TV I’ll be having 2 scoops of ice cream with my popcorn.

It does appear that a number of our top security people in at least four organizations spent more of their time trying to destroy this Constitutional Republic than they spent time trying to defend us! Time to weed out the rats and send them where they belong, to jail! I don’t want them just dismissed, I want an example set by putting them in jail for treason and dereliction of duty.

Am I to believe that James Comey, an attorney who believed that the sitting president was a liar to the point that he documented conversations for self-protection, cannot produce the documents just 3 months later?

Wouldn’t you take great care to safeguard these documents, especially after leaking their content to the press?

Wouldn’t you carry them to the congressional hearing where you are giving testimony about them, and claiming that the president has lied?

“During his work on the presidential protection details he was able to achieve a close bond with President Barack Obama, and was well regarded by the Obama administration. Clancy was part of the Secret Service protective detail that jogged with President Bill Clinton in the early days of his presidency.”

Its amazing!!!so when comey had meetings with Loretta lynch and she said for him to call the hillary emails a matter not a investigation did comey pull out his note pad and say to himself this is something big I need to write this down! No he said he only pulled out his memo pad when he had a private I meeting with trump,and he said this is something
Big I need to write this down! That’s just weird ! You know Loretta lynch privately told comey to go light on Hillary! Where is his note pad on that ! ? It tells me Loretta lynch told comey to back of Hillary ! In in their private talks they agreed!!!!! So comey is now trying to cover his own hide and throws lynch under the bus in the hearings! And like Paul Harvey used to say now you know the rest of the story!